Buzzing in Hot Spring County, Arkansas

Several friends and myself had gone together to purchase 120 acres of cut-over forest land that was totally surrounded by several thousand acres of timber company land. This land was at the end of a small valley, and at the far end of a dead-end road. On my portion of the land was a small rise in the northern half of the valley, and I was building a shack to be used for hunting and camping. One night,about 8:00, while working inside by lantern light, I decided to step outside on the deck for a cigarette. As soon as I lit my lighter, a roaring, crackling scream commenced from the slope of the ridge to the south; about 300 yards away, but in direct line of sight. I was too startled to do anything but stay rooted to the spot and feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck; something which hasn't happened to me in years. While the scream lasted for only a couple of seconds, it seemed to go on much longer. Since it was very cloudy and dark I ran inside for a flashlight, all the while wishing I had brought my rifle inside from the truck. With a flashlight and a hatchet I headed for the truck only to find that the truck itself seemed to be moving. In the bed of the truck I found my German Shepherd ( I had forgotten all about him.) curled in a tight ball in the corner and shaking so hard he was moving the whole truck. We left immediately. Several nights later, one of the friends who had laughed at me when I told the story came out to see how I was progressing with the shack. He laughed more at the extra lanterns I had placed inside and outside, and at the pistol and shotgun I had laying on the table. We stepped out onto the lit deck and almost immediately the same grating scream came from exactly the same spot on the south ridge. In a flash my friend was standing back to back with me as we stared out into the dark. Since the dog was not with us, and because we were armed and had good flashlights, we stayed there for two more hours, but heard nothing else. But I was certainly glad to have a witness this time. Several weeks later my friend and I ran into one of the other property owners and were relating the story to him when I noticed him becoming a bit pale. He finally told us that he had been burning piles of deadfall on his part of the property - that butts into the south ridge - and was walking back and fourth to the stream to get water to put out the several fires when he heard something walking around him in the woods. It was too dark to see, but he at first assumed it was a deer or maybe a bear. After he had listened for awhile he decided it sounded like a two-legged creature and believed it was one of us trying to play a joke on him. So he continued putting out his fires while listening to whatever it was make a circle around him. But when it got upwind from him he began to smell a terrible odor that he admitted scared him so badly that he got in his truck and left, ignoring his still smoldering fires. I cannot say what it was that we heard, or what the other man smelled. But I have heard several kinds of big cats, bears, howler monkeys and other large animals in my years hunting and in the Army, and I have never heard anything that sounded remotely like what was heard those two nights.